Category: made

home: made [ cloud light ] 

home: made [ cloud light ] 

How about your very own cloud lighting up a room? Perfect for a kids room but cool enough to look grown-up in any room. 

There are countless tutorials about DIY cloud light making, so we’ve rounded up a few. 

Essentially, for a basic DIY cloud light you will need :

• a standard paper light shade, available on the high street and online from various stores including Homebase, IKEA, B&Q and Wilkos. The cloud light can then be hung from an existing ceiling light pendant 

• cotton wool balls (and lots of them)

• a glue gun or PVA 

Extras can include fairy lights to create a drizzle of ‘light’ rain from the cloud-looking shade, and you could also buy multiple shades in various sizes to create a bigger impact with a few clouds. 

Tutorial links : 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQkqUFpn3M

http://www.littlethings.com/diy-cloud-light/

https://www.nousdecor.com/blog/diy-l-led-cloud-light

http://astyleofliving.com/2012/01/diy-cloud-lights-for-your-wedding.html

home: made [ peg boards ]

You have probably noticed in recent years, peg boards have been seen more in the home than the tool shed. And this is due to their versatility and quirky style. The simple design and functionality of equally spaced holes in a large panel of wood with accompanying pegs is genius.
Most commonly they are used as notice boards for hanging items and photos, and of course still used for tools and utensils in workshops. But have you thought about what else can be created with peg boards?!

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We have found some great uses including multi functional picture and shelving walls, doors for cabinets and even kitchen splashbacks.
Check out apartmenttherapy.com for a cabinet revamp, craftandcreativity.com show us how to paint a cool cross-stitch image and decor8blog.com has some brilliant ideas to get you thinking.

If your inspired then head to amazon or ebay to pick up a basic peg board. London Graphic Centre also do some fun coloured boards, great to get started with. [ Look around to find a good price as some can be quite expensive ]

home: made [ creating with text ] 

home: made [ creating with text ] 

Discovering TipJunkie was a good moment. A collated selection of DIY projects all designed with the typography fan in mind. 

From creating giant initials to hang on the wall to decoupage with book pages to word art, this feature has 16 projects to have a go at. 

Our favourite DIY is the printed letters or numbers on a cork board, as featured in last Friday’s trend post. Either freehand or with stencils, with emulsion paint and a brush or sponge, you can get creative with words, letters and numbers on a simple plain cork board (see bottom right in the picture). A good spray varnish finish will help to ensure your work lasts and won’t chip with the daily use. 

Home accessories and styling created with typography designs are the perfect way to personalise your home, whether it be the initials of the family hung on the wall, or the pages of your favourite book pasted onto the wall, a quote you love on a giant canvas, or even stencilled letters spelling out ‘welcome’ on a wooden hallway floor as you enter the house. 
  

home: made [ gold projects ] 

home: made [ gold projects ]  

With gold being one of this season’s on-trend colours, how about four easy, home projects to bring a little of this uplifting colour into your home. 

Dulux have come up with these great, simple DIYs. Produce either a gold enhanced table, tray, plant pot or frame! 

Plus if you’re feeling extra creative the table and tray ideas can be taken even further – design more elaborate patterns (go geometric or stripy) or add in an additional complimentary colour like lemon, copper or grey. 
  

home: made [ stencilled floors ]

home: made [ stencilled floors ] 

To create a unique and affordable stylish floor, try floor stencils or decals. When you’ve fallen for some beautiful, but expensive, moroccon tiles or maybe want to recreate a Victorian floor or simply love the look of patterned floors, stencilling or decals are a great way to reproduce the look yourself at a fraction of the price.

If you’re lucky you already have decent floor boards to use as a base, these would need to be thoroughly cleaned and lightly sanded to ensure the paint takes to the surface. If the floorboards aren’t in decent shape then you could look to lay a plywood covering to provide a smooth layer to paint onto. You will need a good water based paint or floor paint and a good floor varnish to finish and seal.

If going for a decal, again, the floors would need to be prepped – clean and smooth, and a good varnish will ensure its long lasting.

Cutting Edge give a useful how-to guide, as do Royal Design Studio Stencils – and head to Apartment Therapy for ten gorgeous stencil design ideas for inspiration. 

Be inspired by current trends of geometric, lace and monochrome for an up to date look or even look into designing your own decals or stencils that you could lay to create your perfect floor from Pixart Printing or have a look at the range of tile style decal stickers from Zazzle. 

  

 

home: made [ marquee light ]

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home: made [ marquee light ]

Lights for our home come in all shapes and sizes. One particular trend that has taken off over the last couple of years is marquee style letter lights – solid letters filled with individual bulbs.
With versions popping up all over the internet and in homeware shops there are a lot to choose from, sometimes being quite pricey. Today we show you  how to make your own personaliased marquee lights at a fraction of the cost.

For the best effect and to create a sturdy light you will need to cut your letters or symbols out of wood [ jigsaw needed ]. Alternatively you can get hold of pre-cut versions online from sites including Amazon and Hobby Craft [ from £2 ].

We found two great tutorials at popsugar.com and Robesondesign.com

home: made [ book organisation ] 

home: made [ book organisation by colour ] 

  

Whether people roll their eyes or ridicule the effort, they can’t deny that organising (visual merchandising ) your book shelves by colour (or colour blocking) looks good.

It’s about realising that books are as an important feature as any other piece of homeware. As they often take up such a significant space on a wall in the home, why not make them visually pleasing. They will add to the styling of a room and can aid bringing a colour theme to a room. 

  
Apart from looking well styled, it’s actually often a very useful way to find books, as many the human brain can work well with remembering colours (associated with a book cover and spine)  as opposed to names or authors to find the sought after book. 

The simplest way to create this look is to start with bare shelves and work out your plan of colour order. Colours should blend into each other i.e. Black into grey into white into yellow into orange into red into pink into purple into blue into green, with tones of each colour helping to blend the look. It can help to create piles of matching coloured books first to give yourself an idea of the amount of each colour and how much room they’ll need. It will envolve a little bit of trial and error but there are many images on google for inspiration as well as design blogs giving ideas. 

home: made [ tie dye ]

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home: made [ tie dye ]

Memories of the 80’s and 90’s tie dye may be a thing of the past, but now tie dye is back in a new modern way. Gone is the rainbow of colours and in is a more monochrome simple colour pallette.
It’s very easy to get the look yourself on pillow cases, tea towels and napkins, with a few essentials. And it’s fun!

Head to A Beautiful Mess and Honestlywtf to see tutorials on following Shibori tie dye [ a simple technique ]

home: made [ printing ceramics ] 

home: made [ printing ceramics ] 

Sometimes home accessories just need a personal element. The current trend for getting creative with ceramics is a fun, easy way to create pieces for your own home, for a party or for a gift that stands out for being individual and personal. 

There’s a variety of art mediums to use to get illustrations, text or any design onto ceramics or glassware. Transfer or decal paper can be printed on and used, sharpie markers can be used to draw, write and design straight on plates or cups and ceramic paint is also available. 

Apartment Therapy offer a great tutorial for using printable transfer paper and you can buy printable decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper. If you want inspiration for using sharpies head to A Beautiful Mess. 

Take inspiration from current trends in botanical drawings, typography and geometric designs. For extra depth to the design, layering your designs over already patterned plates can look brilliant too. Search eBay, charity shops and carboot sales for vintage crockery to use or head to IKEA for good quality plain modern ceramics. 

Ceramics can be designed with names or pictures tailored for an event, a seasonal time of year or even with a selection of great motivational quotes or words. 

If creativity doesn’t come naturally printing images onto transfer paper means you don’t actually have to draw or write a design yourself. And if you just can’t face a little DIY have a peak at Etsy and buy straight from the creative folk making it already, like the talented Ivonne Ellen who’s gorgeous pieces including vodka tea cups and animal illustrated plates are just incredible. Prices from £35.